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Anatolia Express – Vancouver, BC

This recently opened downtown “outpost” of the much loved Turkish restaurant Anatolia’s Gate in Burnaby has a comparatively pared-down menu, but a number of the favourites are here including their stuffed pide. Sadly missing is their lavash which, at the Burnaby location, comes out of their pizza oven puffed up to the size of a baleen whale. Also, the flavours of the dishes here are subdued compared to those at the mothership.

The eggplant salad, for example, lacks the lovely smokiness of its fire broiled sibling in Burnaby. The portion sizes are also slightly miniaturized for area’s the take-out market

This location is run by the friendly owners – former New Yorkers Hakki and wife Jannan who ran a Turkish restaurant in Albany for ten years prior to moving here to open Anatolia’s Gate. Interestingly, Hakki found his passion for cooking late in life having spent much of his early adulthood as an Applied Mathematician.

Anatolia’s Express is tiny (two 2-tops and two 4-tops) since it is primarily a takeout joint. And it’s cheap. As a bonus – I can now recommend a place that has both good food and a good view.

First of all, ı want to criticise the decoration of this place. Trying to express your Turkish Culture with the rug on the wall should not be the way. And the music, plays in there, is the worst i’ve ever heard. If you run a restaurant called “Anatolia”,then it should be by all sides. First impressions shape the thought. Unfortunately, I frustrated when i entered. Then my disappointment got bigger after eating the ‘thing’ Adana. Because as a Turkish who have eaten several times the real Adana,i can say it is just a thick and long köfte but not ‘Adana’. I am really disappointed, ‘Anatolia Express’ is not good enough to eat real Turkish food.